To be honest I'm not sure what being a famous alum has to do with it. The idea is to hire the best coach, not the most popular one. And I would argue that Loeffler's coaching credentials at the time were better than Harbaugh's. By 2002 he'd already strung together a very impressive resume: Griese, Brady and Henson. Furthermore, success as a player does not guarantee success as a coach.

Well this was in 2002 and Harbaugh's only experience was an unpaid gig with Jack at WKU. It was something like one year removed from his pro career. Loeffler was pretty clearly the right choice at the time.